Gaming machines, such as slot machines and video poker machines, have been a cornerstone of the gaming industry for several years. Generally, the popularity of such machines with players is dependent on the likelihood (or perceived likelihood) of winning money at the machine and the intrinsic entertainment value of the machine relative to other available gaming options. Different players, changing popularity of types of games, geographic location of a gaming machine, time of day and day of the week may cause players to be attracted to different types of gaming machines. This gives rise to a desire by operators for gaming machines that are flexible and configurable.
Microprocessor-based gaming machines that follow a client/server configuration provide flexibility through software control and the ability to communicate data and download software from a supporting server. The gaming machines are clients of one or more remotely located servers. While the gaming machines will typically contain a gaming application, i.e. game software currently in play by a user, other data or management control (gaming information) related to the current gaming application or the gaming machine may need to be obtained from a remote server.
Where the ongoing play of the current game is dependent on the gaming machine receiving such gaming information from the server, the inherent delay in gaming machine obtaining the information from the server will be a disruption to the user if the delay is long enough. For example, a delay of 0.01 second in the ongoing game would not likely be noticed, but a delay of a few seconds in a continuously changing image would likely be annoying to the user. Delays are commonly encountered when a browser initiates an information request from a remote server. The typical browser will delay other processing until the information has been received, i.e. an hourglass being commonly displayed on the screen to indicate the browser is awaiting a reply or event. Therefore, there is a need to minimize such disruptions for gaming machines operating as clients in the client/server mode.